The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132501   Message #3002266
Posted By: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
08-Oct-10 - 02:48 AM
Thread Name: What is psych folk...?
Subject: RE: What is psych folk...?
Pip - psych-folk (a term that has been around a good few years and is probably interchangeable with acid folk) usually denotes music influenced both by folk and by psychedelia (hence the hyphen). Personally, I wouldn't describe Trembling Bells, Ali Roberts or Shirley Collins as psych-folk, wonderful though all three are, because I don't really detect the psychedelia in their music, with the possible exception of some of the tracks on Shirley's Power of the True Love Knot. I would, on the other hand, describe Espers as psych-folk, in that it is contemporary music influenced by the 60s/70s music that was retrospectively labelled psych-folk. Which another thing - no-one called it psych-folk at the time... at least a generation went by before that term was applied. I don't really mind the term - it seems to me to be a good, accurate label to signify music influenced by folk and psychedelia but distinct enough not to sit comfortably as either. Trouble is, any old shite gets labelled psych-folk these days - usually on eBay.

Of course, the label is far, far secondary to the music, which you either like or don't.